


Braces (or The Story of How Akiteru Totally Caught Two Baby Nerds Mackin)

by OrbManson7



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, akiteru's favorite pasttime is embarrassing his baby brother, braces getting stuck together, but also not established because of flashback to when they were babies, grad parties, storytime with akiteru, who knew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 04:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3964075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrbManson7/pseuds/OrbManson7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While at Tsukishima and Yamaguchi's graduation party, Akiteru tells the former volleyball team about how he TOTALLY caught the two kissing when they were younger. (Ultra fluff, established Tsukkiyama outside of flashback, child/braces! au inside of flashback, story is very Americanized because this story is just for fun)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Braces (or The Story of How Akiteru Totally Caught Two Baby Nerds Mackin)

**Author's Note:**

> okay so i've been working hard lately to make sure my lil bro has the BEST grad party ever. he finally graduated and had his party yesterday, so yay. But I also have been ITCHING to write some tsukkiyama where the two are little kiddies that have braces, so i kinda just had a thought to mash these two things together and ran with it! enjoy this story within a story~

\--  
okay so i've been working hard lately to make sure my lil bro has the BEST grad party ever. he finally graduated and had his party yesterday, so yay. But I also have been ITCHING to write some tsukkiyama where the two have braces, so i kinda just had a thought to mash these two things together and ran with it! enjoy this story within a story~

Pairing: Tsukkiyama  
Word Count: 3806  
Warnings: Fluff, Americanized Everything (sorry)  
\--  
A hand clapped him hard on the back, and he tensed up, attempting to have as little a reaction to it as possible. Tsukishima exhaled, doing his best to not even look in the owner of the hand's direction.

"Congrats, you two!" Kuroo told them, smirking.  
Yamaguchi sent the man a genuine smile.

"Thanks," he responded kindly, as though he HADN'T just assaulted Tsukishima's shoulder.  
"You know," Kuroo crossed his arms over his chest, "I never heard who you guys signed with. Mind filling me in?"  
"No," Tsukishima replied quickly and turned away.  
"Stingy..." Kuroo muttered as Tsukishima walked away. Yamaguchi offered an apologetic smile before chasing down his boyfriend.

"Yamaguchi! Tsukishima!" They heard a familiar voice shout from across the room. They both turned to see the orange mop of hair they knew very well. "We made it!"  
Yamaguchi offered a wave upon seeing Hinata crazily waving his arms in the air to get their attention. It seemed like he'd gotten the entire room's attention, as well, but as another familiar face showed from behind Hinata, the other guests resumed what they were doing.  
"Hi, Hinata, Yachi!" Yamaguchi smiled, motioning them over to them. "Come on over, guys!"  
Tsukishima stiffly stood at his side as Yamaguchi hurriedly pulled out some chairs at the nearest table for their friends.  
Hinata bounded over, Yachi not too far behind him as she glanced around at the other guests. Hinata plopped a box down on the table and took a seat before turning back to where they'd entered, shouting,  
"Kageyama, we're over here!"  
Yamaguchi and Tsukishima both looked back over to the entrance to see their bitter-looking teammate with a small redhead clinging to his neck. He must've gotten wrangled into giving Natsu a piggyback ride.  
The little girl wiggled her legs out from Kageyama's grasp before jumping down to the floor and running over to join her brother and Yachi at the table.  
"You sure picked the best venue in town," Yachi spoke up, still looking around at the rest of the room. "How did you manage to get this place?"  
Yamaguchi glanced over his shoulder at Tsukishima, who showed no sign of answering that question.   
"Dating Tsukki has its benefits," Yamaguchi replied, shaking his head as Tsukishima stared elsewhere awkwardly.  
Yachi rolled her eyes, having heard that before. Yamaguchi had never really explained to her in detail, but it was definitely truly that the Tsukishima family was loaded. At least she wasn't so terribly off herself.  
"Man, I'm still getting used to that!" Hinata groaned, flattening himself out against the table.  
"What's there to get used to?" Kageyama asked, almost matter-of-factly, as he pulled out the chair next to Hinata and took a seat. "They were basically dating since first year anyway."  
"They were?" Natsu asked curiously, stepping over to the other side of the table from the other three and climbing into a chair.  
"Ah..." Yamaguchi held up a finger to respond, but Tsukishima made a face and turned to walk away again. Yamaguchi whirled around to try and stop him again, but he was already headed for the dessert table. "Ah! Tsukki! Wait, our guests--!"  
"I would think Tsukishima would be a little bit nicer since he's got family here..." Hinata commented, straightening up and grabbing a handful of the nuts in the bowl at their table.   
"I would think his whole family would be just like him," Kageyama also commented, pulling the nut bowl away from Hinata's hand with a scowl.  
"Hey, now! Us Tsukishimas are pretty awesome!"  
A hand landed on Kageyama's shoulder and he turned to see the kinder, older brother of their teammate.  
"Akiteru!" Yachi beamed, "Long time no see!"  
She leaned forward to peek around Hinata and Kageyama as Akiteru pulled out the chair next to them.   
"Hey, Yachi," he responded with a small wave and a smile. Scooting his chair forward, he looked forward and noticed the little redhead sitting in front of him. "Oh, who's this?"  
Natsu glanced around quickly as though she wasn't sure he was talking to her, and then suddenly grinned up at him.  
"My name's Natsu!" she told him cheerfully.  
"She's my little sister," Hinata interjected, swiping the bowl of nuts back from Kageyama.  
Yamaguchi returned to the table with a weak grin and two plates with cake slices on them. He held them up to offer, but the two redheads were immediately grabbing for them before he could say a word. Tsukishima came over and set one down in front of Yachi. She glanced up and thanked him unabashedly, but he simply turned away to go take a plate to his brother, as well.  
Yamaguchi waved off her concern as the conversation at their table continued.  
"Well, aren't you adorable?" Akiteru laughed, watching Natsu dig into her piece of cake messily. "Ah, and you've got braces!"  
The flash of silver that shined as she opened her mouth made it obvious. Natsu glanced back over at him as she pulled the fork out of her mouth.  
"Bet those aren't much fun, huh?" Akiteru continued.  
Natsu shook her head.  
"Nope," she told him flatly.  
He laughed again. Well, at least she was honest.  
"You know, my little brother used to have braces, too."  
"Pbbbbttt," Hinata nearly spit out his cake, "Tsukishima had braces??"  
He started chuckling loudly, but Tsukishima glared at him as he returned to Yamaguchi's side.  
"Mhmm," Akiteru nodded, "and so did Tadashi! Actually, if it wasn't for them having braces, I never would have guessed they'd get together!"  
Yachi seemed extremely concerned at that, asking,  
"What do you mean?"  
Yamaguchi could already tell Tsukishima was itching to walk away again. He twitched his fingers, trying to decide if he would just grab onto his boyfriend and stop him before he could.  
"Well," Akiteru grinned mischeviously past Yachi and up at his brother, "funny story actually..."  
"Don't," Tsukishima grumbled, shooting him a half-hearted glare. These idiots do not need to hear the story. Nobody needed to hear it.   
"Ohh, come on," Akiteru drawled out. "You know how much I love to tell this one."  
Yamaguchi reached over and grabbed the back of Tsukishima's shirt before tilting his head at Tsukki's brother. He knew it wouldn't keep Akiteru from continuing, but he tried deterring him anyway.  
"Akiteru," he grimaced, "you know how much Tsukki hates that story."  
Without any warning, another familiar face peeked out from behind Tsukishima's tall frame.  
"Hates what story?" Sugawara inquired, pulling on a big smile.  
Yamaguchi, still holding onto the back of his boyfriend's shirt, flinched away, pulling Tsukki with him just a bit. The two jostled to the right, revealing both Daichi and Suga standing there.  
"Suga, Daichi!" Hinata sputtered ecstatically, "When did you get here?"  
"Just arrived," Daichi replied, and crossed his arms. "Now, what's this about stories Tsukishima hates?"  
Again, with no warning, more familiar faces appeared.   
"Tsukishima hating something?" A loud voice barks out. "Now, that's nothing new!"  
From behind Yamaguchi this time, Tanaka appeared. Yamaguchi jolted to the left, bumping into Tsukishima, moving them back in place again.  
"Tanaka?" Kageyama raised an eyebrow, as though not expecting their older teammates to have made it to the rounds of graduation parties.  
"Ah!" Yachi twisted around in her chair, grinning. "Nishinoya! Tanaka! Hi there!"  
The two mentioned sprinted from their position at Yamaguchi's side to surround Yachi.  
"Hitoka, it's such a pleasure to see you again!" Tanaka laughed.   
"Ditto," Nishinoya told her, and bowed dramatically, "Almighty Karasuno Princess."  
Yachi fumbled and waved them off,  
"You guys..."  
She turned the waving into fanning herself. She sure loved attention, but she never received it like this except from the team.  
"This sure is turning into one heck of a reunion," Yamaguchi noted aloud.  
"Yes," Tsukishima muttered, shying away from the others, "it is."  
Suga and Daichi stepped over towards Natsu, ruffling her hair as they took seats next to her. She smiled up at Sugawara, her mouth covered in frosting.  
Tanaka rushed around the table to snag the seat on Natsu's left, hurrying the conversation back to where it was.  
"So, what's this story about?"  
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi collectively sigh. Looks like the distraction hadn't helped them any.  
"Oh, nothing much." Akiteru leaned forward, "Just one of many embarrasing anecdotes to piss off my lil bro."  
"Well, now you HAVE to tell us!" Hinata laughed.  
"See, Kei?" Akiteru smirked, leaning back in his chair to stare up at his brother, "I HAVE to tell them."  
"Tch," Tsukishima looked away, rolling his eyes. Why bother stopping the inevidentable anyway?  
"Sorry, Tsukki," Yamaguchi offered. "I tried!"  
It's not very consoling, but Yamaguchi could tell Tsukishima appreciated it.  
"Alright, so, when Kei was about 10, he had braces," Akiteru jumped right into the storytelling. Everyone's attention had turned to him as he spoke. "And then, not much later, Tadashi got them, too. Which is just like them, you know how they always have to match."  
"Oh, we know," Kageyama replied. He'd experienced the strange habit of theirs through all of high school, of course he'd know.  
Yachi giggled, as well, and Yamaguchi blushed.  
"Oh no," Sugawara sat up, sudden realization on his face. "Don't tell me--?"  
Akiteru held up a hand to stop him.  
"Just wait," he told him. "It gets good."  
Tsukishima instantly turned away, saying very blatantly that he was leaving, but Yamaguchi still had his shirt in his grasp. He tugged him back.  
"Tsukki," he warned, though it sounded more desperate than threatening. The taller boy stiffened, though, and a single glance over his shoulder explained why. Tsukishima's mother was giving them both a look that screamed that if they didn't appease Akiteru and their teammates, they'd be in BIG trouble.  
They both gulped. Rigidly, the two turned back to the table to hear Akiteru's story...

\-- ~~totally-not-confusing flashback sequence~~ --

"Ow!" Yamaguchi cried, pulling his hand away from his mouth again, looking at the finger that he'd just pricked.  
"If you keep messing with it, it'll fall out," Tsukishima told him flatly as they walked down the hallway towards the stairs.  
"Sorry, Tsukki," Yamaguchi frowned, rubbing at his cheek sorely. "It just keeps cutting the inside of my cheek, and--"  
Tsukishima reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out a small container, handing it to Yamaguchi.  
"Here. Use this," he said (again, flatly). "It'll keep the wire in place so it won't move around so much."  
Yamaguchi gasped in astonishment. He grabbed the small container, which he soon realized contained wax, and smiled so brightly, he wire poked at his cheek again.  
"Thanks, Tsukki!"  
Tsukishima turned back towards the stairs, grabbing onto the railing as he ascended them.  
"Uhh..." he tried to think of something to say in reply, but all that came out was, "yeah."  
Yamaguchi fiddled with the container up until they reached the top of the stairs and stepped past Akiteru's bedroom. The door was just barely open, so the two scurried past quietly, making their way down the hall towards Tsukki's bedroom.  
Opening the door, Tsukishima flicked on the lights, and Yamaguchi tugged off his backpack.  
"Are we gonna watch the new Jurassic Park tonight?" he asked, shoving the wax container in his pocket. "You said your brother bought it, right?"  
"Yeah, but we have to get our project done or he won't hand it over," Tsukishima explained, looking rather perturbed by this fact.  
Yamaguchi glanced over at his friend's desk. The diarama took up the entire space of the desk, the large paper mache mess was a thing to behold.  
"The volcano is almost done, though," Yamaguchi pointed out. "So we just have to glue the trees down, right?"  
"Yeah, and the animals," Tsukishima replied, walking over to the desk. "Did you find any?"  
"Yeah, they're in my bag!" Yamaguchi told him, holding up the backpack he'd just taken off.  
He unzipped his bag as Tsukishima carefully picked up the diarama and set it on the floor so they could get to work.  
\--  
Tsukishima had been placing the plastic creatures all along his side of their diarama, ignoring the quiet squeaking sounds his friend kept making next to him. He stared down at the giraffe in his one hand and the hippo in the other, trying to decide which one would go next to the volcano, when he heard a gross slurping noise from Tadashi in addition to all the squeaking. He turned to his friend.  
"Yamaguchi," he finally remarked, giving a sort of warning tone.  
Yamaguchi had a finger shoved into the side of his mouth, absently pushing at the wire along the top row of his teeth as he wiggled the tree he'd just glued down to his side of their project.   
"Hmm?" he responded, not paying attention and continuing to make squeaking sounds as he rubbed the wire with his finger.  
"I told you to stop playing with your wire," Tsukishima told him bluntly. "It'll come out."  
Yamaguchi quickly turned to look over at him, his cheeks flushing pink as he realized what he'd been doing. He withdrew his hand.  
"Oh, right," he said, wiping his hand on his shorts. "Sorry, Tsukki."  
It became very quiet after that, and Tsukishima decided that the giraffe would have greater chance of survival against an erupting volcano and placed it on the diarama.   
"Are you done with the glue?" Tsukishima asked, his voice sounding louder than usual from the silence.  
"Yeah, h-hold on," Yamaguchi stammered. He took the glue bottle and squeezed some onto the bottom of the paper tree in his hand. He held it out to Tsukishima who took it without a word and continued to work.  
"Hey, uhh," Yamaguchi started, glancing around the big paper mache volcano to his best friend's side of the project, "is it okay if I put this tree on your side? I can't fit it over here."  
He leaned over to try holding it near the edge of the volcano, stretching his arm out, but Tsukishima turned, confusedly asking, "Why not--?"  
Just as he'd looked at his friend, Yamaguchi had scooted again to stretch his arm more.   
"Ah??" Yamaguchi opened his mouth, planning to say something, but only found himself bumping into his friend's mouth. He felt their teeth jam together.  
"Nngh! Ow!" Tsukishima jolted, pulling backward.  
Yamaguchi cried out in pain, too, getting pulled with him.  
Tsukishima stopped and Yamaguchi balled his hands into Tsukishima's hoodie to straighten himself up again.   
"Ah, Tsukki, that hurt, I can't--"  
"D-don't..." Tsukishima paused, his voice sounded odd having it stuck like this. "Don't move around. Just hold on a second."  
Yamaguchi takes that literally and continues clinging to Tsukishima's hoodie, trying to hold his breath.  
Tsukishima examined what he could figure out of the situation. Experimentally tugging himself backwards, Yamaguchi got pulled with him. The straining pain on his teeth and the forced close proximity must mean they got their braces stuck together.  
He sighed.  
"Nnnh," Yamaguchi shook, jittery as he tried to stay still.   
Tsukishima frowned as best he could without being able to properly close his mouth.   
"Uhm," he tried. "Hold still."  
Without more warning, he reached up and put a hand on either side of Yamaguchi's head. His friend shut his eyes tightly in response, and Tsukishima felt his mouth go dry.   
Obviously it was because he'd been keeping his mouth open unvoluntarily, though. There wasn't any other reason.  
He held Yamaguchi's head still and tried to pull himself away, but it gave the same result as earlier. Again, he held tight and tried to pull to the side instead, and still nothing different happened.  
"...I can't get it," he told his friend quietly, and let his hands fall back to his sides.  
"That's...okay," Yamaguchi told him, but Tsukishima could see Yamaguchi's eyes starting to water.  
A deep breath and Tsukishima straightened up against his best friend.  
"No, it's not," he told him, his words slurring only a little now. "We're still stuck like this."  
"Sorry," Yamaguchi said guiltily, as though this had all been his fault.  
Tsukishima stared at his eyes, trying to find the words he could use to explain to Yamaguchi that this wasn't his fault, but nothing was taking form. His thoughts were sporadically chasing between trying to figure out how to solve this problem and wondering why he didn't mind--even liked--having Yamaguchi's weirdly hot breath on him like this.  
"It really hurts, Tsukki," Yamaguchi whimpered, letting his hands grip at Tsukishima's hoodie tighter.  
Tsukishima swallowed the dryness in his mouth. Now wasn't the time for the weird thoughts. He just needed a simple solution, and before his brother came in to check on them and see this...  
His eyes widened. That was it! Why hadn't he thought of that yet?  
"Aki-nii!" he said loudly, trying his best not to tilt his head or turn it at all towards the door.  
Yamaguchi had been startled, but blinked at him before asking,  
"Can your brother help?"  
Tsukishima felt he didn't need to answer that, but if it managed to reassure his friend...  
"Of course he can," he replied before tilting his head downward to try yelling again, "Aki-nii!"  
They both waited, but heard nothing in response. Tsukishima scrunched up his nose in thought.   
"I don't think he can hear me," he remarked, and looked at Yamaguchi expectantly. "You gotta yell, too."  
"Oh," Yamaguchi nodded, but cringed as it caused both of them to wince in pain from the quick movement. "Sorry! O-okay..."  
Almost in unison, they both shouted out, "AKI-NII!" in hopes that they'd be heard this time.  
Tsukishima took a breath to yell again, but Yamaguchi beat him to it, crying out,  
"AKI-NIIIIIII!"  
Instantly, Tsukishima could hear ruffling from down the hall and the sound of someone tripping and thumping to the floor.  
Fast footsteps led to the door to Tsukishima's room flying open, and Akiteru burst inside, looking concerned.  
"Huh? What's wrong--?"  
He paused, just staring blankly at Tsukishima and Yamaguchi a moment before starting again.  
"What...are you two doing?"  
"It-- it's stuck and, and Tsukki tried to get it off," Yamaguchi stuttered, prying his hands away from his friend and trying not to move at all. Finally, he began to cry, "But it wasn't work-- working, and it's still--"  
Akiteru stepped over to them, holding his hands up.  
"Oh, oh, okay," he knelt down next to the two of them and placed a hand on Yamaguchi's shoulder to try to calm him down. "Alright, hold on, just let me see."  
"Sorry, Aki-nii," Yamaguchi sniffled.  
"No, no, it's alright," Akiteru waved him off and turned to look at his little brother. Tsukishima's face had somehow managed to turn a deeper shade of red than he'd ever seen before. "Kei, you okay there?"  
The question received no response. Tsukishima merely glanced at him and then away again. Akiteru took that as his cue to fix this mess.  
Looking at where the two seemed to become conjoined for a bit, he could tell that some brackets had gotten stuck together. It wasn't anything too bad, so he started giving the two instructions.  
"Alright, Kei," he began, "I want you to tilt your head to the left, okay?"  
Tsukishima turned his head as he was told, and Yamaguchi whimpered again.  
"And Tadashi, uhm," Akiteru looked at the brackets that were still stuck together, trying to decide which way to pull them apart. "Just... lift your head up, like, look right up at the ceiling."  
"O-okay," Yamaguchi responded, and slowly lifted his head.  
Akiteru reached between the two and pushed a finger against his little brother's front brackets and then used his other hand to try and lift Yamaguchi's wire from behind it.  
"Now, hold still, this'll--"   
He cut off as the wire jumped from his fingertips and Yamaguchi fell backwards.  
"Got it!" Akiteru laughed, happy with himself.  
"Ah," Yamaguchi breathed, finding himself staring up at the ceiling.  
"...ow," Tsukishima had uttered quietly, sitting himself upright after he'd finally detached from his friend.  
"Are you two alright?" Akiteru asked, glancing back and forth to each of them.  
Tsukishima looked over at Yamaguchi and then back to his brother. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve.  
"Fine."  
Yamaguchi pulled himself up on his elbows.  
"Thanks, Aki-nii!" he told Tsukishima's brother with a bright smile, showing that his braces were still intact after that whole incident.

\-- ~~end of totally-not-confusing flashback sequence~~ --

Akiteru laughed, shaking his head at the memory.  
"I almost feel bad for how much I kept teasing Kei about that after it happened," he continued, "Just, the second Tadashi would leave for home, I'd chime in, tell him it was good he didn't kiss him goodbye or he'd get stuck again."  
The whole table was snickering now.  
"Said it in front of Mom once, too," Akiteru kept going, laughing through his words, "and Kei turned red as a tomato. It was precious!"  
Tsukishima grumbled sourly from behind his brother,  
"Not the word I would have used..."  
The others at the table were laughing and giggling, though.  
Hinata was laughing ridiciously loud, drawing the attention of other guests in the room.  
"How come I never heard this story from you, Tadashi?" Yachi asked, smiling brightly and still giggling a little herself.  
Yamaguchi opened his mouth to reply, but then paused, unsure what to say.  
"Well, that's not--" he tried, but then stopped again. He glanced over at his boyfriend, but received no help. "I mean, Akiteru just makes it sound like we were kissing, but that's not actually how it happened."  
"Sounds like that's EXACTLY how it happened," a voice smarted from the other side of Tsukishima. Yamaguchi leaned over to see it was Kuroo.   
He briefly wondered when he'd come over, but Tsukishima finally spoke up.  
"Let him have his fantasy, Tadashi," he told him coolly, as if he wasn't blushing madly. "Lord knows he hasn't much else."  
Yamaguchi faltered. How was that helping anything?  
"But, Tsukki--"  
He was cut off by Natsu twisting in her chair, asking Akiteru curiously,  
"So, wait... DID they kiss?"  
Yamaguchi turned and held up his hands defensively, telling her,   
"We didn't!"  
"They totally did," Akiteru responded enthusiastically.  
Natsu gasped and then giggled, which only made the rest of the table start laughing again.  
"Aki-nii," Yamaguchi held his head in his hand, "why?"  
Akiteru smirked up at him,  
"I'm your big brother, I have to," he replied.  
Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow in confusion.  
"You're Tsukki's brother, not mine," he stated, clearly confused. Yes, he called Tsukki's brother 'Aki-nii' a lot, but that was a matter of habit after so many years. He never had any siblings himself and he got used to Tsukki saying it all the time... It didn't make Akiteru his actual brother, though!  
The older man just grinned up at him knowingly, saying,  
"One day, Tadashi, one day."  
\--


End file.
